By Meg Peters
Review Co-Editor
A threat of a ‘Lake Orion High Shootout? forwarded amongst students Sunday evening caused the district to close school Monday.?
It started like this: ‘Lake Orion High Shootout! Don’t come to school this Monday, January 25, 2016,? and ended, ‘Be very afraid. Have a blessed evening because it may be your last.??
The threat was found to be nearly verbatim to other threats that were sent to students from Warren, Ann Arbor, St. Clair Shores, and Rochester Hills schools.?
Similar threats could be traced from San Francisco to Tallahassee, Fla., Orion Township Sheriff’s Department substation commander Lt. Dan Toth said.?
‘We don’t believe it’s a local threat or issue. We believe it came outside of the community, and a lot of different communities, and young people, high school age, just continued to forward it.??
Sheriff’s detectives compared messages received from schools in the metro-Detroit area and found that some of them are exactly the same, down to the punctuation and grammar.?
The only thing that changed was the name of the school.?
Detectives interviewed Lake Orion students Monday, after they first discovered the threat from a student who lives in the 1200 block of Parkland Dr.?
‘We investigated the chain of social media messages. The threat came through Twitter, Facebook, Kik, and Instagram,? Toth said. ‘It was a whole menagerie of servers and applications.?
Toth said they had traced it back to individuals in Pontiac and Detroit while deciphering the chain of social media, and defined it as ‘un-credible.??
Apart from Lake Orion, Cass Tech High, and Jalen Rose Academy were closed in Detroit, and Lincoln High School in Warren, due to very similar threats.?
The investigation is ongoing.?
‘Some of these servers and apps are outside of our country. Kik comes out of Canada, which makes it more difficult to trace. It’s not like a search warrant,? Toth said.?
Kik Messenger is a free, instant messenger for most smart phones. The first message deputies investigated Sunday night was a Kik message to the Parkland Dr. resident and student.?
After the threat was passed around, high school families were notified of the school closing, and reason, late Sunday evening through a district messenger. A phone call messenger went to high school parents early Monday morning, and the rest of the district was notified around noon.
Carpenter Elementary year round school remained open, and all other schools were closed for the end of the marking period.?
High school students went back Tuesday, despite some concern from parents expressed on social media.?
A response from Superintendent Marion Ginopolis updated parents again 5:30 Monday evening.?
‘I can only imagine there must be some anxiousness about coming to school tomorrow’especially with exams in front of them. Please assure your children that we will have extensive sheriff presence at the school in the morning and throughout the day along with administrator and faculty presence.?
Once back at school on Tuesday, students took the two-day final exams that were scheduled for Monday.?
‘Thanks goes to the cooperation from Oakland County Sheriff’s Department, and also for their presence at LOHS and CERC today to ensure the safety of our kids and reduce anxiety as they return,? Ginopolis said Tuesday.?
Overall, many parents were grateful for the continued updates throughout the day.?
‘Thank you for taking the threats serious and communicating with parents last night and throughout today. I’m confident that my son will have a safe and successful day of exams,? Lani Gates Waters said on the Lake Orion Community Schools Facebook page.?